A Friday Finish...Yay!

This is the first time I have had a Friday finish in forever!! It helps that it is a small quilt top. It only measures 39x35, but I am smitten with it.

 After I finished all the hearts and put the rows together, I felt that it needed a border of the pink. There wasn't enough pink! So I added a 2 1/2 inch border and I am happy with that.

 I am going to bind it with a medium blue to bring out the flowers and also to give it a proper place for the eye to stop since the pink is so pale.

 I really love this fabric. It all started last week before Valentine's Day, but I am crushing on heart quilts right now.

And I am piecing all the scraps from the hearts to add to the back. I was inspired by Amanda Jean's new book.
Have a great weekend.

Love is Love is Love

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone. I have been working so hard getting the house ready to sell, that I decided to give myself today off. I have done the dishes and made the bed, but the rest of my day has been spent sewing. I am working on a couple of projects using Allison at Cluck Cluck Sew's heart pattern. One is a small quilt and the other is more of a long term project.

 I started out using two fabrics from the Paperie line by Amy Sinibaldi. I love all the sweet prints in this line, but these hearts are my favorite and I have been trying to use them for almost a year now.

 I made four of them to see how I liked them. I wanted to see how they looked together on the wall.

 And I must say, my favorite part is where these little words show up. I did not fussy cut. This is totally random.

Then I tried something different. I left the top and bottom border strips off a couple to see how it would look off set every other row. I loved it! Sew that is how I am going with it now. I hope to have it finished soon to show you.

 These are the hearts that started the whole thing. I pulled a few 5 inch squares out of my red scrap bin and began to make these.

I don't really know where I am going with this right now, but I see it as a long term project. I want to use lots of other colors as well as the red, and I am thinking about trying out some other solids for the borders as well. I would like to end up with a big quilt eventually.

And lastly, these lovelies have sprung up in my yard. 80 degrees last Sunday coaxed them out. I do love an early spring. Have a great day and I'll see you soon.

A Little Bit of Sewing

I haven't had much time the last two weeks, but this week I got to sew a bit. Yay me! I am trying to keep myself from going crazy here with all the house stuff and work. Sewing soothes me in a way not much else does. I know there are those of you who feel the same way. So this is what's going on:

 This is my little Village from the Penny Sampler Quilt. I had such fun picking the fabrics. I had a few others picked out, but as usual, the fabrics led me to this. Some of the ones I thought would work just didn't seem right when I put them up there. So my village is done.

 This is my mitten all sketch stitched to a golden yellow Dimple Dot fabric. It is backwards. The thumb is supposed to be on the right. But I am leaving it this way. I see no reason to change it.

 This is my clover all sketch stitched to a solid coral. I found that I really like this method of applique. And this completes the February lesson for the Penny Sampler. I am still happy I chose the 12 month class, because I know I will have very little time to sew as the move gets closer. And then my machines will be on a moving van for awhile. So sometime in May-ish, I will have to buckle down and catch back up.

This is the block from Amy Gibson's block along that is following her new book, Quilt Block Cookbook. I bought the book before she announced the block along, and I don't intend to do every block. She is doing a block a week. But I really liked this one. I had a bit of trouble figuring out the paper piecing, but Jennifer Mathis from Ellison Lane has a You Tube video that is pretty good and it helped me out a lot.
Have a great weekend and I hope to see you back here soon.

A few mMinutes to Play

I spent all of last week painting, laying floors caulking etc. I only had a few minutes here and there to play with my fabric and I am missing it terribly I have to say. I am waiting for the new month of the Penny Sampler which should be out today. I can't wait to have something else to work on in my "spare" time.

So last week I was looking for something to do in this little block of time and I have long wanted to make a pineapple block. Maybe more than one, but I had never tried it. I did not want to paper piece. I googled it and much to my surprise and delight (pineapple delight!) Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts had a tutorial from a couple of years back!

Hers is a scrappy (surprise!) version so that is where I started. I have not packed my scraps and most of my fabrics yet. I made it this far, but stopped because I decided that I didn't really like the combination I had going. I love the scrappy idea, but with so much else going on, I really didn't have time to start digging through everything. When I sew scrappy, I make quite the mess looking for just the right pieces. So next, I tried something else.

I pulled two fat quarters off the shelf and added the contrasting block in the center. I really liked this. I plan to keep playing with both of these ideas and create a pineapple quilt for myself. I love the technique and practice makes perfect so more practice for me.

Happy Wednesday. Halfway through the week!